You don’t have time to do stuff, right? That’s why you’ve skipped the gym, not gone to the movies, stopped reading books or order fast food all the time. You don’t have the time to get those things done that you enjoy and it causes you to be stressed and tired of the same routine over and over again. Here’s the problem with that, everyone uses that excuse, few look into how to fix it. The truth is there are always ways for us to improve our time management that will give us more time to actually enjoy ourselves. Here’s how you can get started:
- Make a journal of what you do throughout the day: It will be tedious but if you commit to this you will be amazed at how often you do things like check your phone, go onto social media, watch tv and talk to people. While these are all things you certainly can do, perhaps they are things that are causing you to always feel rushed.
- Figure out how to cut back on these distractions: Try making a promise to yourself that you will not go onto social media between 10-12 each morning. You’d be amazed at how much more you get done without that 2-minute distraction that becomes a 25-minute distraction during that time.
- Figure out what consumes most of your time: This is different from what distracts you. There are things we have to do each day that take time and they are a must. A great example is the commute too and from work. Each day it takes you about an hour round-trip to get too and from work. That’s not uncommon and a big reason is traffic. Now ask yourself this, if you were to try that same round trip on a Sunday, would it be the same amount of time? If not, then it may make sense to adjust your routine. Instead of working out in the morning and then going to work, try going to work and join a local gym in the area. You’re still doing both parts of the routine but you’re able to cut that commute time down and get more of a workout in or do something else with the added time.
- Turn the television off: This one is always up for debate as people prefer to work with a television on. They say it doesn’t distract them, but it does. However, that should not be seen as a punishment but a chance to make an adjustment. There are aspects of our job that are not challenging and we can do them somewhat distracted. For example, if you are a teacher and you’re grading tests, maybe you don’t have the television on while you’re doing that, but you can have it on when you are entering all the grades into the computer. You’re getting through the harder task faster and then you have more time for the part that’s not as challenging.
- Combinations work: The multitaskers of the world aren’t superhuman or smarter than everyone else. Actually, they’re just really great at getting multiple things done during the same timeframe as others can only get one thing done. Let’s say every morning you go for a walk and tomorrow morning you have to skip it because you need to be call to get a new car insurance plan. What if you take care of it while you are on your walk? Simply combining some things you are doing will free up time throughout the day.
If you are committed to making improvements you need to start with looking for what is wasting your time throughout the day and how you can either cut them or multitask. That will help you get more done each day and especially more things you want to do.
